Adblock Plus launches on Android to block ads in apps and on the Web, no rooting required

Adblock Plus, a forked version of Adblock, today released version 1.0 of its free native Android app. You can download the app now from the official Google Play store (Android 2.1+ required).

You can also download the .apk directly from AdBlockPlus.org and install it manually. If you do, however, you won’t get automatic updates, which are particularly important when it comes to blocking ads (as the sites that serve them are regularly changed).

Android users will of course be very pleased with the news, but third-party Android developers likely won’t. Ads are a big source of revenue for most app makers, and the biggest for many.

The announcement isn’t up yet on AdBlockPlus.org, but when it is we will update you with any additional information. In the meantime, the about page describes the new release as an app “that works in background and filters web traffic according to standard Adblock Plus rules.”

Despite this, you still have to run the app at least once to perform the first-time configuration setup. Either way, you’ll want to play around with the settings to make tailor the ad blocker to your needs.

The app has three major modes:

If device is rooted then it will be able to filter common web traffic without any change to network settings. In this mode it can filter both mobile and Wi-Fi traffic.

For non-rooted devices running Android 3.0 and older Adblock Plus needs to be configured as a proxy server manually. Some devices do not support setting a proxy server, Adblock Plus for Android will not work on these devices.

let me try to understand this correctly: some of you want to use apps given to you free of charge with the expectation that they will make the cost back through ads that you are intending on blocking? Why not just buy the paid version to avoid the ads?

let me try to understand this correctly: some of you want to use apps given to you free of charge with the expectation that they will make the cost back through ads that you are intending on blocking? Why not just buy the paid version to avoid the ads?

let me try to understand this correctly: some of you want to use apps given to you free of charge with the expectation that they will make the cost back through ads that you are intending on blocking? Why not just buy the paid version to avoid the ads?

Not all apps have an ad-free paid version, which is annoying as yes, I'd much rather pay to support the developer than put up with annoying ads that take up valuable screen space.